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VISITATION AT MARTIN CI

NEW ADDRESS FOR CHARLES JERRY
Witness to Valdes Murder by Guards

State agencies spar over water at prison

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/tcoast/epaper/2007/10/07/m1a_MCI_WATER_1007.html
By DAPHNE DURET 
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 07, 2007

Last month, as Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Jim McDonough searched for ways to cut his budget, he cited water issues at Martin Correctional Institution as a reason he wanted to shut the prison down.

The issue is the lack of water, prison officials say.

Martin Correctional Institution water woes

1990:Corrections officials build a membrane plant at the institution amid state environmental complaints about water standards.

1994: MCI is one of several state prisons cited for having poor drinking water.

October 1999: The water plant is shut down and nearly 750 prisoners evacuated from the prison after problems with the wells supplying water to the facility. Several prisoners, including those in lockdown, stay behind in cells they say smell and lack working toilets. One sues the agency and asks a judge for an emergency transfer elsewhere, but the judge dismisses the case two weeks later after the evacuated prisoners are returned and prison officials tell the court that the problems had been fixed.

June 2002: About 1,000 gallons of sulfuric acid leakfrom a closed water treatment plant at the prison. The plant had been idle for about a year at the time because department officials said they were waiting for state money for maintenance. About 250 inmates are moved from the area for several hours while a cleanup crew disposes of the acid and empties an additional 1,400 gallons from the tank.

December 2006: Department of Corrections and the Department of Environmental Protection enter into a legally binding agreement requiring prison officials to bring the levels of trihalomethane contaminants and haloacetic acids down to drinking water standards.

September 2007: Department of Corrections officials cite an inadequate water supply as one of the reasons Corrections Secretary Jim McDonough is proposing to shut down the prison and send the inmates to other facilities. Department officials say water quality issues did not factor into the recommendation.

But Department of Environmental Protection records show it's the quality - not the quantity - of water provided to the 1,400 inmates that was so poor as of late last year that prisoners were drinking water with contaminants between two and five times the maximum allowable levels reported to eventually cause liver and kidney disease, as well as cancer.

As part of a legally binding agreement McDonough signed with the DEP in December, he promised to make changes to the water treatment system to reduce levels of trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids, both of which experts say can cause someone who drinks excessive amounts over many years to have an increased risk of cancer.

One of the terms of the agreement requires signs to be posted at the prison north of Indiantown warning inmates and visitors that water at the facility exceeds maximum contaminant levels for consumption. The signs stress that there is no need to drink bottled water as an alternative.

"However, if you have specific health concerns, please consult your doctor," the signs say.

Tampa resident Carmen St. Claire said she has seen the signs while visiting her fiancé, who is serving a 40-year prison sentence for DUI manslaughter.

He stopped drinking the water altogether and eventually developed kidney stones, St. Claire said. Dehydration complicated his condition, she said.

"I think to myself, 'How could they do this to people?'" St. Claire said. "Even if you think they're criminals and they deserve to be in prison, they're human beings."

Department of Corrections officials say that, although the levels are high and they are trying to fix the issue, an inmate would have to drink gallons and gallons of the water over a long period of time before there was a chance of an adverse effect.

Had the water issue posed a serious health risk to the prisoners, officials said, DEP would have forced them to stop giving inmates the water altogether.

"We always try to make sure, whether there or at any of our facilities, that we are getting the best water quality we can," corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said.

Prison officials say employees also drink the water. In the past, prison employees who asked not to be identified said they bring their own bottled water.

Inmates can purchase bottled water from the prison commissary, St. Claire said, and she buys several bottles for her fiancé whenever she visits.

A decades-long problem

The prison has a decades-long history of water troubles.

Department of Environmental Protection complaints about water quality in 1990 forced prison officials to build a new treatment plant, and in 1994, it was one of several prisons the agency cited statewide for violating state water quality standards for lead and copper.

According to records from the most recent agreement with the DEP, high levels of lead were found again in the prison drinking water late last year, but Department of Corrections officials say subsequent water testing from the first half of this year show that the levels are now below the maximum allowable amount.

Perhaps the most notable of the water troubles came in 1999, when officials were forced to shut down the prison's water treatment system and temporarily relocate nearly 750 inmates. DEP records showed the self-contained water treatment plant drew from seven wells that were continually either clogged, unproductive or out of service.

Records from that time also show complaints of bad odors from the water.

Pamela Elmore's husband, Richard, was one of the prisoners at Martin in 1999 who was transported to the South Florida Reception Annex in Miami-Dade County.

Richard Elmore was released after serving part of a sentence for an armed robbery charge but is back at the prison on a probation violation.

His wife said he tells her the water still has a yellow tinge to it, just as he remembered from 1999. He said it smells and sometimes tastes like sewage.

"He says it's as bad as it was before, if not worse," Pamela Elmore said.

Cost could be an issue

The contaminants found in the water most likely result from the chlorination process the water goes through when it is being treated, according to experts.

Plessinger said prison officials have hired an engineering firm, which is completing plans to fix the treatment system. A few strategies include alternating wells more often and buying updated equipment.

Plessinger said the quality was not a factor in McDonough's decision to recommend that the facility be shut down.

But with a prison that would require $18 million in upgrades to have enough water to operate at capacity, the cost may be more than prison officials want to spend.

"We don't know yet how much it will cost to address the quality issues," Plessinger said. "But the quantity issues are absolutely a reason why the recommendation was made." 

July 18, 2006

Two or three weeks ago, an inmate in B-Dorm reportedly fought with officers. I was told he actually exposed himself in a mocking manner to three C/Os. One officer went to the Colonel for permission to pepperspray the inmate. The Colonel refused permission, so the two guards went outside with the inmate, doused him with inflaimant and set him on fire.

It has been reported that the inmate died, three officers were fired and are reportedly going up on murder charges.

It has also been reported that on Tues of this week, Secretary McDonough visited Martin CI.

Apparently this situation is hush-hush because you'd expect the media would run at least a mention and I haven't been able to find anything about the murder. If anyone has further information, please contact me, Kay Lee at kaylee1@charter.net

Historical Information from FDOC Website: This facility was established in 1985 and houses adult male inmates. It is designated to accept minimum, medium, close custody and all medical grades. Martin C.I. provides academic, vocational and self-betterment programs. Martin Work Camp is under the supervision of Martin C.I. as well as Martin Treatment Center (which is currently being used to house sexual violent predator detainees) and the International Exposition Center which is a joint venture between the Department of Corrections and the Department of Agriculture for the purpose of housing and showing cattle.

Directions to Martin CI: Take I-95 to Exit 62 (State Road 714). Go west to 4-way stop sign. Turn right onto SR-609. Martin is approximately three miles on the left side. Turnpike directions: Take turnpike to Stuart exit. Take first left onto State Road 714 to stop sign. Turn right onto State Road 609. The institution is approximately three miles on the left side.

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